"Mary Ingles' Escape Story Like
'Thriller' Fiction Tale"

Draper's Meadows and Ingles Ferry were two early settlements in
Kanawha county settled by the Draper and the Ingles families. The
settlements were on what is now New River.

In 1744, according to tradition, Thomas Ingles and his eldest
son, William, then a youth, made an excursion to the wilds of
southwest Virginia from Pennsylvania, penetrating the wilderness as
far as New River.

Of the details of this expedition no record has been preserved.
On this trip they probably made the acquaintance of Colonel James
Patton, who held a grant for 120,- 000 acres of land west of the
Blue Ridge, and in the valley of Virginia. :

George Draper and his young wife, whose maiden name had been
Elenor Hardin, came from County Donegal, Ireland, in l729,and
settled at the mouth of the Schuylkill river, within the present
limits of the city of Philadelphia. Here two children were born to
them, John In 1730 and Mary in 1732.

Between 1740 and 1744, they, with their two children, came to
Virginia, and located at Colonel Patton's settlement (Pattonsburg),
on the James river.

While the Drapers lived at Pattonsburg, George Draper started
out on a game-hunting and land- seeking expedition, westward. He
never returned, and was never again heard of by his family. It was
supposed that he was killed by the Indians.

At about this time, (1748), Thomas Ingles and his three sons,
Mrs. Draper her son and daughter, Adam Harmon, Henry Lenard, and
James Burke left for the west and made the first settlement west of
the Allegheny Great Divide. The name used for this settlement was
Draper's Meadows.

William Ingles, son of Thomas, had married Mary Draper in the
first white wedding east of the Alleghenies. John Draper, Mary's
brother, had married Betty Robertson.

Indians Start Attacks

The friendliest of relations had existed up to this time between
the settlers and the Indians but as the French had been stirring up
trouble this state did not last long. On July 8, 1755, the day
before the defeat of Braddock's army at Fort Duquesne, a party of
Shawnees from Ohio fell upon the Draper's Meadow settlement and
killed, wounded or captured every person there. Colonel Patton,
Mrs. George Draper, Jasper Barrier and a child of John Draper were
killed. Mrs. John Draper, Mrs. James Cull were wounded and Mrs.
William Ingles, Mrs. John Draper and Henry Lenard were made
prisoners.

William Ingles at the time was away from home but he saw the
smoke from the burning buildings. When he reached the scene, he
realized that single-handed, battle would be fruitless so he sought
safety in flight. He was pursued by the Indians but succeeded in
escaping by hiding in the brush. It is not recorded where John
Draper was at this time but apparently he was not near.

The Indians escaped with their plunder, stolen horses and
prisoners and by the time that organized. pursuit began it was too
late to overtake them.

Decapitated Old Man

About a half a mile or a mile to the west, on their route, they
stopped at the house of Philip Barger, an old man, cut off his
head, put it in a bag and took it with them to the house of Philip
Lybrook, on Sinking Creek, where they left it, telling Mrs. Lybrook
to look in the bag and she would find an acquaintance.

In 1774, 19 years later, the family of John Lybrook, son of
Philip, was attacked by a party of Indians. John Lybrook himself
succeeding in eluding them by secreting himself in a cave in the
cliffs but. five of his children were murdered. About the same
time, Margaret McKenzie and three Snidow boys were captured in the
neighborhood. Two of them, Jacob and William soon escaped and
returned but John, a small boy, was taken on to the Indian towns.
He was recovered by his family after some years of captivity during
which he had almost forgotten his mother tongue, and meanwhile had
acquired so strong a taste for lndian life that he returned to the
Indians and spent his life with them. Margaret McKenzie was
recovered after 18 years of captivity, returned to Giles county,
married a Mr. Benjamin Hall, and lived to a very old age, dying
about 1850.

The general course of retreat of the Indians with the prisoners
and spoils of the Draper's Meadow massacre was down New river.

The experience was especially painful to Mrs. Ingles, who was
nearing childbirth. Neither this, in her case, however, nor a
broken arm in the case of Mrs. Draper, were allowed to stand in the
way of their making the trip. They were permitted to ride the
horses carry the children and make themselves as comfortable as the
circumstances allowed, but go they must.

On the night of the third day out, Mrs. Ingles, far from human
habitation, in the wild forest, gave birth to an infant
daughter.

Ordinarily this would have been equivalent to a death warrant to
the mother and child, for if they had not both died, under the
stress of circumstances, the Indians would have tomahawked them, to
avoid the trouble and the necessary delay of their journey. But
Mrs. Ingles was an extraordinary woman, and due to her perfect
physical constitution, she seems to have borne the baby with almost
as little suffering and loss of time as one of the wild Indian
squaws themselves. She was next morning able to travel, and did
resume the journey, carrying the baby in her arms, on
horseback.

Indians Wanted Ransom

One strong reason why Mrs. Ingles and infant were not tomahawked
was that the Indians counted upon getting a handsome sum for the
ransom of herself and her children. It was not tender humanity but
cold business calculation that prevailed.

From the mouth of Indian creek the Draper's Meadows party came
down the river, on the west side, to the mouth of Bluestone river,
when they left New river, going up Bluestone a short distance,
thence crossing over Flat Top Mountain, and probably following very
much the route of the present Giles, Raleigh and Fayette turnpike,
to about the head of Paint creek, thence down it to the Kanawha
river.

Upon reaching the salt spring just about the mouth of Campbell's
creek, then well-known to the Indians, they stopped and rested, and
feasted themselves on the abundance of fat game they killed as it
came to the "licks" for salt.

Made Supply of.Salt

While the Indians hunted, rested and feasted themselves at the
salt spring they put the prisoners to boiling brine and making a
supply of salt to take with them to their homes beyond the
Ohio.

Mrs. Ingles took part in this salt making, and she, together
with the other prisoners, were undoubtedly the first white persons
who ever made salt, not only in this valley but anywhere west of
the Alleghanies.

After several days the party again loaded up the pack-horses and
resumed their onward march down the Kanawha and down the Ohio to
the capital town of the Shawnees, at the mouth of the Sonhioto, or
Scioto river, which they reached just one month after leaving the
scene of the massacre and capture at Draper's Meadows.

Soon after their arrival at the Indian town there was a general
gathering of old and young welcome back the raiding party, and
celebrate the event. The prisoners, according to custom, were
required to "run the gauntlet," except Mrs. Ingles, whom, on
account of her condition, they excused. Mrs. Draper,
notwithstanding her lame arm, was subjected to this painful
ordeal.

Spoils Divided

A few days later there was a meeting of the Indians who had made
the last raids to divide out the spoils. The prisoners were all
separated and allotted to different owners, and not again allowed
to see or communicate with each other.

Four-year-old Thomas, named after his grandfather Ingles, was
taken up to or near Detroit; the youngest son, George, named after
his grandfather Draper, now two years old, was taken somewhere into
the interior, and Mrs. Draper went up to the region of Chillicothe.
What became of the prisoners then or afterward is not known.

Shortly after this division of prisoners some French traders
came into the Indian town for the purpose of trading and bartering
with the Indians. They had a stock of check shirting, and as check
shirts were in great demand among the Indians and Mrs. Ingles a
good seamstress she was put to making check shirts. Her proficiency
in this line so increased her value and importance to them that she
was treated with unusual leniency and consideration.

'Heap Good White Squaw'

When a shirt would be finished and delivered to its owner, the
buck would stick it on the end of a pole and run through the town
exhibiting it, singing the praises of the "heap good white
squaw."

After this trading and shirt making had continued for two or
three weeks, a party of Indians with these Frenchmen was made up to
go to the "Big Bone Lick" to make salt. Mrs. Ingles and some other
prisoners, among them a Dutch woman, were taken along.

This Big Bone Lick is about 150 miles below Scioto, and about
three and a half miles, by the creek, from the Ohio river, in Boone
county, Ky. Some of the largest mastodon bones ever discovered, and
the largest number ever found together, strewed the ground here or
were partially buried beneath the surface.

Colonel Thomas Bullitt and other early explorers here in after
years used the immense ribs and tusks for tent poles and the skulls
and vertebra for stools and benches. The huge bones, tusks and
teeth were taken in large numbers to enrich many museums both in
this country and in Europe. Many of the tusks were eight or ten
feet long.

Planned Her Escape

While at the Big Bone Lick, Mrs. Ingles resolved to make her
escape, and, if possible, find her way home. The elderly Dutch
woman, agreed to go with her.

Mrs. Ingles now had to make the supreme decision of her life.
She well knew that if she attempted to take her baby with her, its
cries would betray them both to recapture and death. And, even if
she should possibly escape recapture, she knew too well what she
would have to encounter and endure to suppose it possible to carry
the infant and succeed in her effort.

It is difficult to conceive of the agony of a young mother
compelled to decide such a question. But Mrs. Ingles was a woman of
no ordinary nerve. She did decide and act, and the baby was left
behind.

She gave the baby her last parting kisses and baptism of tears,
tore herself away and was gone, never to see it again in this
world, and knowing or having every reason to believe that it would
be murdered as soon as it was known that she was gone.

Headed Toward The Ohio

They started late in the afternoon, and bent their steps toward
the Ohio river. There were no roads, no guides; they knew but
little routes, distances, or points of the compass.

When they failed to return to the camp at or later than the
usual time, the Indians became uneasy, thinking they had strayed
too far and lost their way, or had been killed by wild beasts.

Some of the Indians went some distance in the direction they had
started but which course they had reversed so soon as out of sight,
and fired guns to attract their attention if they should be lost.
They gave up the search that night, however, and did not renew it
the next day.

Did Not Pursue Them

Their conclusion was that the women had been killed by animals
and gave themselves no farther concern about them. They did not at
all suspect that the women had attempted an escape.

These facts were learned by William Ingles from the Indians many
years after at an Indian treaty conference at Point Pleasant, when
they (the Indians) learned for the first time what had become of
the missing women.

The women kept the Ohio river in view, and tramped and toiled
their weary way up its course, cheered by the knowledge that every
miles they made took them one mile nearer their far-off homes.

Acquired Old Horse

Days later, near an Indian village near the site of the present
city of Portsmouth, 0., they found an old horse grazing about,
loose. They "appropriated" this horse, gathered what corn they
could manage to carry, and getting away from the neighborhood of
the settlement as quietly and quickly as they could, resumed their
onward movement.

The horse was a most valuable acquisition. Sometimes they rode
him on the "ride and lead" plan, alternating, and sometimes both
would have to walk lead, depending upon the nature of the
ground.

After several days of travel, having passed the sites of the
future towns of Greenup, Riverton, and Catlettsburg, they reached a
stream (the Big Sandy), which they were unable to cross near its
mouth, and they traveled up it a long distance before they could
cross. At length they came to a lodgement of driftwood, extending
clear across the stream.

They tried it and found it would bear their weight but when they
tried to take the horse across its legs broke through and they had
to abandon it.

Followed the Ohio

They now started down the upper or east side of Big Sandy, and
retraced with weary steps, the distance to the Ohio again, and
thence up it, sometimes along the river bank, and sometimes along
the ridges, with the river in sight.

As they did with the Big Sandy, so they had to do with every
stream they came to, from first to last. When they would not wade
the stream at the mouth, they had to go up it until they could, and
many of the streams required days and days of weary travel up to a
point of practicable crossing, and back again to the main stream,
their only guide, thus increasing very greatly the distance
traveled, perhaps nearly doubling a direct river line.

Frequently, in going up or down these side streams, they could
see that the stream made a large bend, and to save distance, they
would go across the ridge, having to pull themselves up the steep
hills by the bushes and sods until they reached the top, when, from
fatigue and exhaustion, they would move, slide than walk down,
bruising and scratching themselves severely as they went.

Since the loss of the horse, the old woman had become greatly
disheartened and discouraged. She blamed Mrs. Ingles for having
persuaded her to leave the Indians, to starve and perish in the
wilderness.

Attempted Violence

In her desperation she threatened to kill Mrs. Ingles, and even
attempted violence. The old woman was much larger and stronger than
Mrs. Ingles, but the latter was younger and more active, and
managed to keep out of reach, though both were so exhausted from
hunger and fatigue that they could little more than walk.

The weather was getting cold, and they suffered greatly from
exposure. They had long since worn out their shoes or moccasins,
and their clothes were worn and torn to shreads and rags by the
bushes and briars. At night they slept under shelving rocks or in
hollow logs, on leaves, moss, or such stuff as they could rake
together.

When they failed to find nuts and berries enough to sustain
them, they were often driven by hunger to pull up small shrubs or
plants, and chew such as had tender bark on their roots, without
the slightest idea of what they were, or what their effects might
be; the cravings of hunger must be appeased by whatever they could
chew and swallow.

Used Dresses on Feet

They protected their feet, as best they could, by wrapping them
with strips torn from what was left of their dresses, and tied on
with strings made from soft, flexible bark of the young leatherwood
shrub.

After 40 days Mrs. Ingles figured that she was 30 miles from
home and had not seen a fire since she left the Indians.

When about 12 miles from home she reached the cabin of Adam
Harmon. Here she remained for a few days before going on to her
home. The Dutch woman had become lost in her wanderings but
fortunately she had come upon a party of hunters who took care of
her. Eventually they were united at the Ingles home. Later the
Dutch woman started back home by way of Winchester. Her name was
not preserved.

William and Mary Ingles were happy to be together but they could
never banish the thought that the fate of their children at the
hands of the Indians was unknown.